Three from Bollywood

hannel
4 has been running a short season of Indian ('Bollywood') films. Now, I'm not
normally a great fan of Indian cinema: their audiences know what they like, and
it's very long films with lots of melodrama and comedy - subtlety is not usually
a requirement - and plenty of songs and dancing in that odd combination of
Indian classical and Western disco. Print quality and soundtrack used to be
appalling, but they have caught up there and good photography, high-quality
prints and Dolby stereo soundtracks seem to be the norm
now.

So I thought I'd give three of
these films a go: with reservations, they proved worth seeing. Om Shanti
Om (2007) is pitched as a musical, with a good deal of comedy even
though the underlying plot is melodramatic. A bit-part performer in 1970s
Bollywood, Om (Shahrikh Khan) falls in love with an established film star Shanti
(Deepika Padukone): however she is secretly married to the film's slimy producer
(Arjun Rampal). He wants to keep the marriage secret for career reasons: when
she demands to have it recognized he kills her, and also Om who witnesses the
murder.

Thirty years later he been
resurrected as a successful film star: only eventuallly remembering his former
life he finds an actress with a strong resemblence to Shanti with the hope of
scaring the producer into a confession: but during their attempt Shanti's ghost
appears and kills him in revenge.

The
film is fun, though you don't have to take the melodramatic plot too seriously
(and it makes little sense), and the songs and music fit into it well. There are
some amusinc digs at 1970s Bollywood, including placing Shanti into scenes from
some old films.

The second film,
Rang de Basanti(The Colour of
Sacrifice) (2006) is a more serious affair. British documentary film-maker
Sue (Alice Patten) is intrigued by the diary of British officer in 1940s India
who oversaw the jailing and hanging of several young Indian men for being
freedom fighters against British rule. Refused permission by her company to make
a film about it she goes to India anyway and with the help of a friend recruits
several young men to act in her
film.

They are young, irresponsible and
mostly interested in chasing girls, but gradually get caught up in the drama of
the story. Tensions mount when a Muslim joins the otherwise Hindi cast: then a
friend who flies MiG fighter planes for the government is killed in a crash
which is attributed to poor maintenance - itself caused by government
corruption. Incensed by this, and inspired by the characters they have been
acting, they assassinate the Minister responsible and hijack a radio station to
broadcast their reasons: they are killed by the security forces. A caption tells
us that though this is fiction, many pilots have been killed in MiG crashes.

The drama is well played out,
involving us as the comedy slowly turns to drama and tragedy: but the obligatory
songs and dances are spatchcocked into the plot and merely distract from it: the
film would be much stronger and more effective without them. However it's
certainly produced an effect in India, spurring protests about corruption and
being itself none too popular with the
authorities.

From
comedy and serious drama to overblown historical epic. Jodhaa
Akbar (2008) is based very loosely on a real Mughal emperor of the
sixteenth century, though most of the plot is fiction. Emperor Akbar (Hrithik
Roshan) has conquered most of the kingdoms over a wide area. To cement this rule
over the Rajputs he marries the King's daughter, Jodhaa (Aishwarya Rai) over her
opposition. Though they are hostile to each other at first, their love slowly
develops, and this is the main plot of the film through a welter of subplots
involving battles, treason, revenge and
duels.

The film has caused controversy:
present-day Rajputs objected to the portrayal of their ancestors (who I would
have thought come out of the story quite well, even though one of them is the
main villain), and there have been objections about historical accuracy (Jodhaa
may actually have been married to Akbar's son) which seem a bit off the point -
it's on a par with Robin Hood: a colourful legend, not a history
lesson.

Though Roshan is a little
bland, Rai is genuinely beautiful and acts the character convincingly; and the
other actors manage the grand manner without turning it into ham. The inevitable
songs and dances - with a huge number of dancers - jar less than they might in
what is hardly an accurate representation of history: and the photography is
stunning. It's a tribute to the film-maker's skill that it sustains what is
really a very slight plot through three hours and twenty minutes (though I was
watching it in a comfortable armchair with breaks when required: I would have
been less happy about it in a cinema with no interval). It deserves to be on
Blu-Ray - it isn't yet, but there is an apparently none-too-good DVD transfer -
though I'm not entirely sure it would stand up to repeated viewing. Well worth
seeing once, though, in the best quality you can find. Just get a comfortable
chair.